Home Hill
Located seventy-seven kilometres southeast of Townsville and ten kilometres south of Ayr on Yuru country within Burdekin Shire Council's boundaries, Home Hill was part of the Inkerman Downs pastoral lease before the Queensland government resumed the property under the Closer Settlement Act in August 1910. The property was subdivided into farming allotments, and the township developed after the first blocks of town land were sold in December 1912, and the Inkerman sugar mill commenced operations in 1914.
While the township was known as Home Hill, or perhaps Holme Hill, from the start, the name's origin is uncertain. The British 2nd Division's main position in the Crimean War's Battle of Inkerman in 1854 was Home or Holme Ridge; a Crimean War veteran named Colonel Home reputedly lived in the district. Other sources suggest that a railway station signwriter misspelt Holme Hill, and early references to the town refer to Holm Hill.
Although the Inkerman Bridge carrying the North Coast railway line across the Burdekin River opened in September 1913, the township's residents had to wait until January 1930 for a conveniently located road bridge. Both bridges were low-level structured, and cross-river communications were frequently closed or damaged until the hundred-metre high-level "Silver Link" bridge across the Burdekin was completed in 1957.
Links:
Inkerman Downs pastoral lease
Closer Settlement Act
Inkerman sugar mill
Holme Ridge
Colonel Home
Inkerman Bridge
North Coast railway line
"Silver Link" bridge
